A novel method of measuring executive function in autistic adults with a view to developing adaptive support strategies

This project focuses on measuring autistic adults' ability to successfully manage their behaviour within their environment, with a view to developing innovative adaptive support strategies for them. Psychologists argue that controlling our behavior to achieve our goals involves 'executive functioning' which combines holding goals in working memory and the inhibition of goal-irrelevant distraction. However, difficulties in executive functioning are frequently associated with autism. While the neurodiversity agenda rightly questions the extent to which atypicalities in autism need addressing, issues in executive functioning are linked to reduced adaptive functioning. Understanding and targeting these difficulties therefore has the potential to improve quality of life for autistic individuals. However, previous interventions targeting executive functioning in autism have rarely been effective, which this proposal seeks to address.
The project will use novel methods for measuring executive functioning in autism, measuring working memory and different dimensions of inhibitory control simultaneously within a single task. In line with recent theoretical developments, it will move beyond the simplistic discrete categories highlighted in current theories of the structure of executive function. Instead, it will test a multi-dimensional account in which the interaction between executive components is only expected when capacity is exceeded. This multidimensional approach also has highly novel practical applications and will be used to generate individualised executive function profiles of autistic adults when developing adaptive interventions.